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For characters introduced in the sequel Termina, click here.
Playable Characters
In General
- Deity of Human Origin: One of Multiple Endings that you can achieve involves the player character ascending to Godhood after defeating all of the members of the Fellowship without Le'garde in their party.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The default name for the protagonist is the same as their class. Though it's Averted when you meet them as recruitable characters.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: As protagonists, they fit into one of these roles until they're able to unlock another skill tree:
- D'arce and Ragnvaldr are Fighters. The former has all her skills oriented towards combat, primarily buffing herself. The latter, meanwhile has an increased Attack and access to War Cry and Bloodlust, though his Marksmanship gives him an element of the Thief by allowing him to kill enemies in the overworld.
- Enki is a pure Mage, as his skills make him better at casting and dealing with magic, while his equipment restrictions make him less effective in physical combat.
- Cahara is a Thief, with Lockpicking and Steal helping him save up on equipment, Escape Plan and Dash making it much easier to avoid unfavorable fights, and En Garde allowing him to start combat with an advantage.
- Handicapped Badass: Potentially. The protagonist, and the recruitable characters with the exception of Nas'hrah can lose an arm, a leg, or even one of both and can still scrap with the worst things the dungeons have to offer provided they have the right gear, skills and even items.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: While the characters have set names, you are free to give your chosen protagonist whatever name you please.
- Hero of Another Story: They all enter the dungeons around roughly the same time and with their own personal agendas and you can even encounter the other protagonists as recruitable characters.
- Multiple-Choice Past: All playable characters' backstories can be determined by the player which will grant them certain abilities, with certain choices allowing them to learn to dash should you choose to rush straight in.
Cahara, the Mercenary
Cahara
Mercenary, thief, assassin... Whatever brings the silver to the table. Mercenary is known for his dirty tactics in combat and crafty ways of gaining the advantage.
A mercenary born with the soul of the endless that made him constantly crave freedom and push the depths of his creativity, Cahara joined many armies and learned the dirtiest tricks to stay alive. One day, after settling in the Kingdom of Rondon, he's tasked with a handsome reward for rescuing a fabled captain out of the dark dungeons.- Bittersweet Ending: His S-Ending is of the intentionally Esoteric Happy Ending variety. He became fabulously rich due to selling the King's crown and was able to buy Celeste's freedom, allowing him to retire comfortably from ever needing to lift his sword ever again and ascend to becoming a noble of commoner birth. However, he's left traumatized by his experiences in the dungeon, and for all of his riches, it left him deeply fearful and afraid of even the faintest movement in the shadows for the rest of his life.
- Cloudcuckoolander: There's a non-negligible number of actions that indicate there was something wrong with Cahara even before he came to the Dungeons — from showing uninhibited interest in the Marriage ritual, to trying to stab you over being confronted for his team-abandoning ways, and finding the prospect of dying in the toilet hole/shit pit "the easiest way to go".
- Dirty Coward: His backstory gives him the option of abandoning his comrades once his gang gets caught in a nasty ambush.
- Disappeared Dad: Is implied to have become this to his unborn child, as Termina confirms that the God of Fear and Hunger ascended, and he is the only former protagonist not alluded to, thus lending credence to the idea that he died in the dungeons.
- Distressed Dude: When the protagonist first encounters him, he's locked inside a gated prison cell.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Downplayed, if not arguably subverted. Cahara wins his wife's freedom and becomes fabulously rich from his treasure-hunting in the dungeon, and has guaranteed a new and fabulous life for him, his wife and unborn child through his hard work. However, he remains deeply traumatized by his time inside the dungeon, and as the below entries cover, it's far more of a Bittersweet Ending in practice.
- Escape Battle Technique: The Escape Plan in his skill tree, which makes it much easier to flee from combat.
- Esoteric Happy Ending: His S-Ending is an in-universe and intended example, with it even being ironically called "Happy Ending". Cahara became fabulously rich as a result of finding and selling off the King's crown, even buying Celeste's freedom and ascending to a nobleman with his sheer amount of wealth, allowing an early retirement to his mercenary career. However, he's still deeply traumatized by his time in the dungeon, and it's clear his experiences will haunt him for the rest of his life.
- Fragile Speedster: Can notably acquire both the Escape Plan skill (which makes running from fights significantly easier), and En Garde (which allows for a free opening turn to attack whatever enemy you're fighting). This makes it entirely possible for Cahara and allies to trivialize nearly every fight by cutting out an enemy's legs, retreating, and then fighting them again and targeting their now-easily hit head. He can also learn the Dash skill if he doesn't start with it, which significantly boosts his movement speed. However, he lacks D'arce's combat skills or Ragnvaldr's sheer strength, making him less useful in sustained fights.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Sanguine of the playable characters. Eccentricities aside, he's far and away the nicest and most lively, charming and openly-emotive of the party members, showing empathy to The Girl's plight and having ventured into the dungeon for his Selfless Wish at freeing his wife from slavery. Given the kind of universe he's stuck in, this sadly comes back to bite him on the ass in his canonical ending.
- Generation Xerox: Has an ancestor who like him, was a mercenary for hire mainly motivated by the riches the job would bring (though Cahara has a much more understandable reason for this).
- In Harm's Way: If he opts to lead a honest life, he eventually opts out of being a merchant and becomes a sellsword and a criminal, as he feels like he's destined for more than just being another merchant.
- Irony: Unlike the other playable characters, Cahara is neither aware of or closely involved in any sort of greater scheme, grand plan for godhood, or ancient prophecy. He's also the only one who's implied to have brought The Girl to the bottom of the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger, helping her ascend to become a God with power and influence the likes of which have never been seen before and caused such a drastic change in the world of Fear and Hunger. Not only that, but this action even beats Le'garde at his attempt to attain Godhood.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His profession isn't exactly a noble one, and as the So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear example below shows, he can be quite selfish at times, but the reason he went into the nightmarish Dungeons in the first place was due to the Selfless Wish of freeing his lover from a life of prostitution. He also comforts The Girl if he's the one assisting her with Bonesaw amputations and is the only real source of kindness and care she has ever received, making him responsible for her successful ascendancy into the God Of Fear and Hunger, who ascends mankind to new heights by using her power, influence, and teachings to help them overcome suffering and rising up in the face of constant strife.
- Ladykiller in Love: Cahara mentions having trysts with numerous women (and men), but he came to the Dungeons in order to get a reward that would allow him to free his lover, Celeste, from working as a prostitute.
- Master of Unlocking: He has the potential to learn the Lockpicking skill, which allows him to unlock simple locks without having to spend keys or break down the door.
- New Child Left Behind: Celeste is pregnant with his child, and Cahara left for his mission to provide financial support for both Celeste and his unborn baby. Termina hints that Cahara never made it out alive, thus making the child Someone to Remember Him By.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Most protagonists consider becoming The Marriage and performing the Sylvian ritual a distressing but necessary measure to survive the dungeon. Cahara? Most of the time, he'll express unashamed enthusiasm for it.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: If we take his absence from the sequel as any indication, Cahara was most likely the one who took The Girl down to the depths, meaning he most likely died seeing the birth of the God of Fear & Hunger, with the newborn God being the only one to remember him for his efforts. Basically, he tried doing the right thing in the dungeon, and got punished for it.
- Only in It for the Money: Downplayed, as his main motivation for accepting the task to retrieve Le'garde from the dungeons is the prospect of returning with and/or being rewarded with wealth — so he can buy Celeste's freedom from prostitution.
- Rags to Riches: If he escapes the dungeon, Cahara sells the King's Crown and becomes fabulously rich. Not that he can truly enjoy his newfound wealth, considering the hell he's been through.
- Really Gets Around: Mentions having had many male and female lovers in the past.
- Riddle for the Ages: Cahara is the only one whose fate after entering the dungeons of Fear & Hunger remains uncertain. Circumstantial evidence points to him going down to the depths of the dungeon with the Girl, but did he necessarily die from it? Was he perhaps allowed to walk away from the dungeon as thanks for his kindness? Given the canon ending of Fear & Hunger goes an entirely different route from what's achievable in the main game, it's impossible to say for certain.
- Sad Clown: Some of the funniest moments of Black Comedy that happen in the game come directly from Cahara himself, and a lot of his snark often at least attempts to lighten the mood. Of all of the playable characters, however, he takes being in the dungeon the hardest, even in his happiest endings.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- During the introduction sequence, you are given a choice to either fight to the last breath or abandon your comrades when asked what you would do in the midst of an ambush. Abandoning your comrades allows the mercenary to learn Escape Plan, allowing for a greater chance of running from a battle.
- If you find the King's Crown and refuse to give it to him, he'll steal it from you, then disappear for the rest of the game, being implied to have escaped the dungeons.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: If you take his absence of mention in the sequel and lack of reference to anyone else helping the Girl ascend, it's entirely likely that everything Cahara did to help his wife effectively had him accomplish nothing of note. However, the impossibility of fully replicating the events that occur in the canon ending leaves room whether or not he died in the dungeon, being anyone's guess.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: In his S-ending, Cahara escapes the prison and is able to free his lover from her life of forced prostitution but is forever changed by his experiences and remains deathly paranoid about the inevitable return of the horrors he witnessed in the dungeons of Fear & Hunger.
- The Sneaky Guy: Cahara's skills are largely based around using dirty tricks to give him an advantage or even just outright running from combat.
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: Once the protagonist arrives at the blood pit after recruiting him, Cahara ditches their party, taking a blue or light blue vial. He will also take some coins should they not have any healing vials on them. You can find him later on and pretend nothing happened, allowing him to join the party permanently, or you can confront him over the matter and have a battle to the death with him.
- Tempting Fate: Witnessing the flashback of him about to leave on his quest, and he promises Celeste that "If— no when I get back, things will change." and their lives will improve with his newfound wealth. Termina, through both the presence of the God of Fear and Hunger, and him not being acknowledged whatsoever, all but outright says that he didn't return.
- Uncertain Doom: Termina doesn't say anything about what ultimately happened to him, but circumstantial evidence ruling out everyone else that could've done so points towards him having been the one to assist the Girl in her ascension into the God of Fear and Hunger and dying for it, forgotten by all but her. That said, there's likewise no indication of him dying during it aside from his absence, and given for obvious reasons getting every single ending that's canon in the game at once is impossible, there's nothing to say that the Girl doesn't let him walk away alive if scarred for his efforts. It's anyone's guess, frankly.
- Vanilla Unit: If not chosen as the protagonist, he'll have no skills whatsoever, leaving him weaker than D'arce and Ragnvaldr in physical combat. However, he also lacks Enki's equipment restrictions, so he still remains a pretty decent party member.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: His Ascended form in the D Ending has him forgo his shirt, with the insignia on it having been inscribed onto his skin.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In Termina, the fate of D'arce, Ragnvaldr, and Enki are accounted for in different ways. Enki and Ragnvaldr are essentially confirmed to have survived the dungeons given the existence of the former's Skin Bibles and the latter's descendant, August. While there isn't anything mentioning or hinting at D'arce having survived the dungeons, her S-Ending is implied to have happened and may even have had a hand in the events leading to Termina. Cahara, though, gets no mention whatsoever — directly or indirectly — in the sequel, although the presence of the God of Fear and Hunger, plus the other playable characters being preoccupied, do faintly hint that he ended up dead as a result of the God of Fear and Hunger's ascension, making his kindness to The Girl and her ascended form his true legacy.
D'arce Cataliss, the Knight
D'arce Cataliss
Knight with pure and righteous ways of the warrior. Having been trained for combat since a child, knight excels in close combat and with different weaponry.
Born with the soul of domination that makes people around her bend to her will, D'arce was a holy knight of Rondon but left for the Knights of the Midnight Sun after seeing the kingdom's corruption; they were led by a man named Le'garde, who she fell in love with. After the Knights invaded the Kingdom of Oldegård for an artifact, Rondon demanded Le'garde's arrest and wiped the mercenary band out, but D'arce survived; she got word Le'garde was imprisoned in the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger and set out to rescue her captain.- Bald Mystic: In her Ascended form.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: If she finds Le'garde dead, she's willing to do anything to revive him. As it turns out, this is a very, very poorly thought-out decision...
- Big Guy: All of her skills are oriented towards physical combat, making her the mainstay fighter of any party (along with Ragnvaldr).
- Boyish Short Hair: To the point where a player might confuse her with
a man at first. - Chaste Hero: If she accepts your Marriage proposal, she will say she's a virgin.
- Crutch Character: Starting out with good damage and armor, and able to use Fast Attack to get multiple combat actions out of the gate, she's easily the best character in combat at the start of the game. But much of the game involves avoiding unnecessary fights, and other characters can eventually acquire many of her advantages as the game progresses.
- Damsel in Distress: After doing something to trigger their wrath (most likely interrupting one of their rituals, given her attempts to preach the religion of Alll-mer to them), the player first encounters D'arce being on the receiving end of a cavedweller's Boulder Bludgeon, with the tribesman needing to be killed to recruit D'arce.
- Defend Command: During her intro, the protagonist knight can choose to raise her buckler, allowing her to learn Defence Stance, preventing critical damage and reducing the likelihood of an enemy's melee attack striking her.
- Expy: D'arce is very similar to Casca from Berserk in that she is the second-in-command of a celebrated mercenary force who both hero-worships and loves her superior. She even looks like a Caucasian version of the character with her armor and Boyish Short Hair.
- Extra Turn: During the intro, she can choose to step aside and dodge an attack, allowing her to learn Fast Attack, which allows for an extra turn during battle.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Phlegmatic of the playable characters. Calm, dutiful, patient, and loyal. D'arce remains almost-entirely devoted to Le'garde and is often the most level-headed of the party. Granted, not like this stops her from doing something stupid…
- Generation Xerox: Has an ancestor who, like her, was an esteemed knight of Rondon under Alll-mer's order.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Despite averting the use of Chainmail Bikini and wearing very practical armor, she still doesn't use a helmet to protect her head.
- Ignored Enamored Underling: Fell in love with Le'garde, to the point of Undying Loyalty, but he neither reciprocates nor cares. Asking the captain to show love on a ritual circle while playing as her will even have him bluntly say "Not happening".
- Jeanne d'Archétype: She's a virginal knightly woman clad in plate armor who formerly fought in service to the resident Crystal Dragon Jesus, and maintains virtuous ideals. Even her name evokes that of Jeanne d'Arc.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Heroic, honorable, and holds herself pretty well against the horrors of the dungeon, making her a surprisingly straight example of this in the world of Fear & Hunger.
- Lightning Bruiser: D'arce is the best early-game character in combat, having very good starting gear plus several very useful skills in Leg Sweep (which has the utility of being able to break down any door in the game), Fast Attack (which lets her move twice per round), and other such useful abilities. Granted, there should be an asterisk there; best early-game character in combat. Unless she has the foresight to save up on Soul Stones to become a Master of All, she loses out on the guerrilla tactics and sheer utility of the Mercenary, the gradually-overpowering brawn, archery, and sustainability of the Outlander, and the all-powerful sorcery, necromancy, and easy access to fuse of Enki. In most RPGs, she would be one of the best characters in the game, but as Fear & Hunger is moreso an Immersive Sim Survival Horror game, these advantages are far more situational than you'd assume them to be.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Arguably, her choice to go into the dungeons to rescue Le'garde could be this, especially since she does it after witnessing him raid Oldegård. Though that can still be understandable if you consider her character and how she's not the only one motivated by love to brave the dungeons (Cahara and (to a lesser extent) Ragnvaldr come to mind). Her choice to resurrect Le'garde using sketchy magic, though? Not so much.
- Love Makes You Dumb: If it isn't a case of Love Makes You Crazy, it's this. Her infatuation with Le'garde was what made her venture into the Dungeons of Fear & Hunger despite the blood-soaked reputation it has, and if D'arce finds Le'garde dead, she doesn't stand above using incredibly-sketchy forms of necromancy to revive him, despite how obviously bad of an idea that is. Suffice to say, D'arce is a perfectly reasonable woman otherwise who happens to make some very questionable decisions due to her irrepressible infatuation with Le'garde.
- Love Martyr: Is in love with Le'garde and her devotion to him doesn't end at braving the dungeons to find him, even if he clearly shows no interest in her whatsoever and has far greater plans that he doesn't want to involve her in.
- Necromancer: In her hard-mode ending, where she learned Rebirth of the Beloved, which she uses on Le'garde.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her choice to resurrect Le'garde in her S-Ending is generally agreed upon by the fandom to be a poorly thought out decision. He's only a husk of his former self and the text states that whatever good was in him was not retained as he's now become a monster wanting to inflict the pain he felt upon the world. Termina supports this, seeing as it's implied that it helped Le'garde's ascension into The Kaiser.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Her S-Ending, "The True God of Fear & Hunger," turns out like this. Le'garde is successfully resurrected, but as a shell of his former self, whatever virtues he once had replaced by a desire to conquer the land. D'arce is so out of her mind that she doesn't even register that following him is a bad idea.
- Sex Shifter: Implied. She is able to use Demon Seed like any other playable character.
- The Smurfette Principle: The only female out of the four playable characters.
- Undying Loyalty: Towards Le'garde, to the point that she even attempts to bring him back to life in her S-Ending.
- Weak, but Skilled: Downplayed, but relative to Ragnvaldr, she lacks his +10 attack. However, her soul contains several skills that apply buffs to her, as well as Leg Sweep to remove an enemy's legs.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She will turn on the protagonist and their party should they decide to do nothing and let Ragnvaldr kill Le'garde at the entrance to Ma'habre. Nothing they say to her will prevent a battle against her, although they can try to talk her out of fighting. The same case applies if you're playing as the Outlander and choose to kill him while he's lying on the floor in his own prison cell.
Enki Ankarian, the Dark Priest
Enki Ankarian
Bearing no burden on such things as morality and ethics, gives dark priest an edge in blood magic. However, devoting oneself to magic has left his physical body weak.
A dark priest with the soul of the enlightened encouraging him to seek new secrets restlessly, Enki left the temple grounds in which he was raised and studied all sorts of occult material to expand his knowledge. After obtaining a pass to the libraries of Rondon, he heard of a prophesised man imprisoned in the dungeons. Curious about what he may know, he ventures forth to find out.- And Then John Was a Zombie: If left unrecruited for far too long on Terror & Starvation difficulty, he'll eventually become an abominable marriage with ghouls, and also hostile to the player.
- Animate Dead: During his introduction, he can either accept defeat or strike his sister from behind, killing her and allowing him to learn Necromancy.
- Black Mage: The only default magic-user in the main four and can't do much physical damage without using magic.
- Break the Haughty: Admits he's pretty unfeeling and unemotional, but the Void strikes fear in his heart for the first time.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Of all the characters playable and recruited, the Dark Priest has quite a case of this.
- The Farmer and the Viper: In his backstory, you can choose to have him kill his sister after she decided to spare him.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic of the playable characters. Quiet, introspective, and barely emotive in the slightest, he takes an almost cynical approach to the world around him, yet is nonetheless relentlessly inquisitive in spite of such. This proves to be a major factor in his motive for his S-Ending, to gain knowledge of the world from understanding the workings of ascension.
- Guide Dang It!: Talking to him too much during the first time you encounter him will lead to him being hostile when you come across him again later on, preventing him from being recruited, provided you have the means to convince him to join the party in the first place.
- Hates Small Talk: Trying to speak to him will elicit a lot of annoyance. Speaking to Enki too much will not only bar him from joining you later, but turn him hostile.
- Jerkass: Compared to the other player characters, he comes off as this, especially in his dialogue when offering assistance with the Bonesaw, and if he attacks you for talking too much to him.
- Lack of Empathy: Has a very casual and indifferent response to seeing others die or get injured. Notably, his dialogue when assisting with the bonesaw even has him relishing in it.
- Magikarp Power: He is the physically weakest of the starting characters, something that is amplified by the fact he cannot wear heavy armor and is restricted to a limited set of weapons. His magical powers also don't appear all that impressive at a first glance, especially since they only work under certain somewhat specific circumstances. But once the player figures out the tricks behind using his magic, especially the fact that he is the easiest character to transform into a Marriage, he becomes a force to be reckoned with.
- Necromancer: One of his default abilities is to reanimate corpses to have them fight for him.
- Nightmare Fetishist: As a dark priest, Enki's interests seem to lean towards the macabre. Firstly, he purposefully had his acolytes crucify him prior to the events of the game, and following his duel to the death with his twin sister (if the player chooses to have him kill her, rather than admit defeat), the game text describes him as being delighted when he learns to bring her corpse back as a reanimated zombie. If you don't recruit him fast enough, he'll end up turning himself into an Abominable Marriage, showing he was willing to copulate with his ghoulish servants.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: If he accepts defeat at his sister's hands and doesn't try to backstab her in the prologue, then the Dark Priests toss him into a well and leave him for dead.
- Playing with Fire: Choosing to burn down the temple after accepting defeat will allow him to learn Pyromancy Trick, a powerful magical damage spell.
- Saved by Canon: His writings can be found and read in Termina, indicating that he survived the events of the game.
- Seeker Archetype: He seeks knowledge for its own sake, and the reason he dives into the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger in the first place is to learn what the prophesies supposedly surrounding Le'garde mean.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Accepting defeat after the duel from his sister allows him to learn Mastery Over Insects.
- Squishy Wizard: Though good at casting spells, he's incapable of equipping heavy armor, and his weapon selection is restricted to maces and non-eastern swords.
- Younger Than They Look: With his harsh facial features, pallid skin, and receding hairline, Enki looks at least two decades older than 29.
Ragnvaldr, the Outlander
Ragnvaldr
Hardened in the freezing winds of the north, outlander is an epitome of survival. He knows all the tricks to stay alive even in the most impossible of situations.
Born with the tormented soul that destined him to struggle in every step of his life in Oldegård, Ragnvaldr was one of the few survivors of an expedition to the untamed Vinland that obtained the mystical Cube of the Depths. Following his experience there, he returned from a hunting trip to find his village razed to the ground. After hearing that the captain who led the raid was now a prisoner of the dungeons, Ragnvaldr intends to confront him, retrieve the Cube, and get his revenge.- Ambiguously Bi: Had a wife who died in Le'garde's raid on Oldegård prior to the events of the game and can also be invited to form a Marriage even if you play as Cahara or Enki. However, it's likely that he only did it out of necessity, as it would improve their chances of surviving the dungeons.
- Babies Ever After: Discussed if he's in your party and manages to make it out of the dungeon, thinking out loud about how he could start over and have another family. Given that August is probably his descendant, it's likely this did indeed happen.
- Barbarian Hero: His background makes him one, and his appearance reinforces it.
- Barbarian Longhair: Sports a nice set of long red hair, befitting somebody of his strength and stature.
- Barbaric Battleaxe: Downplayed. He is a Norse-themed Barbarian Hero who enters the dungeons to fulfill a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Whilst he's normally shown wielding a bow and arrows, his backstory as the protagonist starts with him as a child having to choose his weapon — a hand axe coupled with a wooden shield is one of his two options... and even then, unless you enchant your hand axe, you're much more likely to pick up a stronger weapon from the dungeons instead of that.
- The Berserker: During the intro, the player can choose whether to devour their comrades, or to not give in to their hunger. Not giving in allows him to learn Bloodlust, which gives him more attack power at the cost of 10 Mind, but is capable of only attacking randomly.
- Big Guy: With him having +10 attack, as well as access to Marksmanship, he can serve well as the main damage dealer of the party, and is particularly good with the bow in the overworld.
- Body Horror: If you don't recruit him on the Terror & Starvation difficulty, he becomes an instance of this, appearing as a decapitated husk taken over by a brain flower.
- Boom, Headshot!: If you fail the coin flip when fighting him, he'll take off a party member's head with a well-aimed arrow.
- Born Unlucky: His tormented soul means that he's destined to constantly struggle in life, and it shows:
- His hometown gets hit with a famine, leading him to sign up on an expedition to Vinland. Unfortunately, the expedition itself also runs out of food mid-journey, leading him to either become a cannibal or go mad with hunger. Once the ship does land at Vinland, the horrors there left a mark on his mind, and may have led to him developing a fear of everything.
- Since the Cube of Depths got taken during the expedition (something he knew to be a bad idea), the village got attacked by Le'garde's forces in order to take the artifact, with the population slain to the last man (including Ragnvaldr's family), causing Ragnvaldr to head into the Dungeons of Fear & Hunger to enact revenge. With most of the endings being unhappy, this proves to be a poor plan in hindsight.
- Subverted with his Ending S, which is an unambiguously happy ending that results in him getting his revenge, reclaiming the cube, and becoming a legendary Hunter of Monsters. As indicated in Termina, he may have also started a Heroic Lineage. That said, the canon events also result in Le'garde becoming a New God anyway.
- Death by Irony: Potentially on Terror and Starvation. When initially meeting the player, he’ll brush off offers to join them, noting you as the only one who needs him. Then, if not recruited, as he passes through the thicket, he’ll end up killed for having gone off alone, a brain flower implanted in him.
- Doomed Hometown: The destruction of his village by Le'Garde caused him to venture into the dungeons in order to take revenge on the captain.
- Expy: Two, in particular.
- He can be seen as a reference to Simon Belmont of Castlevania fame, being a Barbarian Hero who sires a long line of monster hunters, if it is to be believed that August from the sequel is a descendent of his.
- He can also be seen as a reference to Guts from Berserk: a Berserker who lost everything he ever loved due to the resident Griffith expy in Le'garde, and set off on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against him. Like Guts, and also akin to his status as a Simon Belmont expy, he becomes a Hunter of Monsters with a feared reputation like Guts, even meriting his own Red Baron title.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Can potentially do this to Le'garde in the Ancient City if you get both in your party.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Choleric of the playable characters. Crass, easily-angered, and driven on by his utter hatred of Le'garde, Ragnvaldr is the quickest to choose violence as the immediate solution to his problems. This doesn't stop him from being the kindest to the Girl aside from Cahara, though this is likely due to being a parent himself who lost his son.
- Heartbroken Badass: Lost his wife and child in the invasion of Oldegård by Le'garde's forces.
- Heroic Build: Being the most muscular and imposing, his broad shoulders barely fit in the frame compared to the other playable characters.
- Hunk: While making love, his sexual partners will comment about his muscular body and ask him to be gentle during sex.
- Hunter of Monsters: His ending S requires you to hunt down most major monsters and bosses, which ends with him deciding to start hunting monsters across the entire world.
- I'm a Humanitarian: During the same part of the intro regarding the choice to give into his hunger, the protagonist Outlander can just give in, allowing him to learn Devour, a helpful field skill which allows him to devour most enemies and refill his hunger.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: His marksmanship skill makes arrows kill instantly, even when used against enemies who normally take several rounds of melee combat to put down. If you engage him in combat, it's depicted as him being able to shoot your head off with a shortbow.
- It's Personal: His reason for heading toward the dungeon is to personally find the man whose mercenary army is responsible for raiding and killing his people in Oldegård — including his wife and child — and to take back the Cube of the Depths he took from them. If the protagonist Outlander does find him alive, he can either let him live and join his party, or outright kill him.
- Kill Enemies to Open: Getting his S ending requires obtaining all the unique souls, which requires killing all the major monsters and bosses.
- A Lighter Shade of Grey: All of the human main characters are morally-ambiguous to some degree or another (Enki is straight-up an anti-social jerk, Le'garde is a Well-Intentioned Extremist, and even the nobler characters feature The Girl being an Apocalypse Maiden, Cahara being a career criminal, and D'arce doing several unsavory things as a means to bring back Le'garde). Unlike the other possible protagonists, the worst that can be said about Ragnvaldr is his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. All he wants is to make Le'garde pay for butchering his home village, and his S-Ending will have him hunt down monsters for the good of mankind.
- Lightning Bruiser: As covered in Magikarp Power, Ragnvaldr turns into this in the late-game if you pick him as your starting character. He has all the innate advantages D'arce has, with the additional benefit of being a Long-Range Fighter, having straight-up better stats, and what's generally agreed to be a far more useful skillset by the late-game than D'arce has by that point.
- Magikarp Power: Ragnvaldr lacks the sheer early-game crutch of D'arce by virtue of lacking her skills in combat and will be a tormented soul until he finds better gear to work with. As soon as he does and he gets off the ground with any skills via Soul Stone enchantment, you get a character who has all the advantages D'arce has, with straight-up superior stats, the ability to remove worry for the hunger mechanic outright with Devour, and is the only character in the game who can start with the incredibly-powerful longbow. In layman's terms, wherein D'arce is a powerhouse in the early-game, Ragnvaldr turns into this by the late-game.
- Master Archer: The marksmanship skill is in his skill tree, allowing him to kill enemies instantly with a bow. If you fight him in combat, he can also instantly kill you by shooting your head off.
- Misery Builds Character: His tormented soul results in him facing constant struggle in life. It does mean, however, that he ends up with a powerful body and one of the kindest personalities among the protagonists, and his willpower can lead him to achieve one of the few happy endings in the game.
- Mr. Fanservice: Shirtless? Check. Rugged yet handsome face? Check. Muscular? Check.
- Muscles Are Meaningful: The most muscular party member, and unlike the other possible protagonists, his base attack is 40 instead of 30.
- Neck Snap: The protagonist Outlander can do this to the imprisoned Le'garde after he finds him still alive in his cell, wrapping his hands around his neck and breaking it.
- Pelts of the Barbarian: His starting armor, befitting a Barbarian Hero, is a set of fur armor made out of leather and wolf pelts.
- Pet the Dog: If chosen to assist The Girl with the bonesaw, he tries to help ease her pain by telling her to think of something else. Possibly justified; Ragnvaldr was a father himself, so he was likely tapping into some Papa Wolf instincts there.
- Puppeteer Parasite: If not recruited, he can be later found wandering The Thicket controlled by a brain flower.
- Red Baron: In his S Ending, his fame as a relentless and unstoppable monster hunter who will stop at nothing to brutally cleanse the darkness from the world leads him to being known as the "God of Ultra-Violence".
- Rugged Scar: Has two across the left side of his face, with one around the eye and another just beneath it.
- Saved by Canon: The implication that August is his descendant supports the possibility that he survived the dungeons.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Dungeon Nights mode shows that his eyes are green which, combined with his red Barbarian Long Hair and role as a protagonist, makes him this.
- Situational Sexuality: Him accepting a Marriage proposal when playing as Cahara or Enki might be this, seeing as he treats it purely as a necessity to survival.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Compared to Cahara and D'arce, he has lackluster combat skills. However, his innate +10 to attack makes him into a straightforward fighter who can dish out a lot of damage without needing a special strategy.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: He wears a fur cape but no shirt underneath, giving him more of that Barbarian Hero look.
The Marriage and The Abominable Marriage
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Becoming one is effectively this, as several marriages appear as hostile monsters. The Abominable Marriage, in particular, is only barely human in appearance.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Becoming a Marriage is a significant power boost, which isn't this trope. What is, however, is a Marriage trying to fuse with someone else, which results in becoming an Abominable Marriage, which has an even better Attack stat at 70, the highest available for a player character. Unfortunately, they are unable to do anything beyond the bare minimum in combat and can't equip gear, with the exception of big swords and the Sergal Spear.
- Developers' Desired Date: Avoided. The Marriage has the features of both genders yet resembles none the party members available to create it.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Due to the bodily transformation, the Marriage loses it's clothes, becoming completely naked with its genitals fully exposed, not unlike other denizens of the dungeon.
- Intimate Healing: Forming a Marriage can remove injuries, even including Anal Bleeding, which has the Lady of the Moon as the only other option to heal it.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: The Abominable Marriage suffers from an inability to get it up, which makes it impossible for it to engage in further marriages or join the bunnymask orgy.
- Monster Adventurers: With the majority of marriages being hostile to the party, the playable marriage qualifies. They can even be more heroic than most human characters.
- Nightmare Face: The Marriage's face looks slightly disfigured, looking like two left and right halves of a face meshed together, one ear lower on the other side and nose slightly crooked. The Abominable Marriage's face becomes even more grotesque, with only one eye able to open, no existing nose at all, and a gaping hole where a mouth would be.
- Posthuman Nudism: Since its clothes get destroyed by the ritual, the Marriage is constantly nude. This is justified for the Abominable Marriage, as it's body is too large to fit into human clothes.
- Power-Upgrading Deformation: The Marriage comes with an increased Attack compared to standard human characters, but it also has a deformed face and an unnaturally long right arm. The Abominable Marriage takes the monstrous appearance even further, but the "upgrading" part is a debatable case, as while it does a lot of damage, it's also unable to equip most equipment with the exception of a few weapons.
- The Right Hand of Doom: Both marriages end up having a larger right arm. The Marriage has their arm closer to their knee, whereas the Abominable Marriage will have their arm reach down to their knee.
- Romantic Fusion: Is formed from a Sylvian ritual done by two (or more) party members.
- Sex Is Good: Surprisingly, even amidst the various displays of sexual violence or unnerving sexual content in the game, the Marriage mechanic is somewhat of an exception to this. The act of sex is presented as a "show of love" and results in renewed strength and healing. It should also be noted that the only way you can even attempt to form a marriage with another party member is if they've been with you for some time now and are willing/able to give consent (Moonless isn't an option, and trying to invite either The Girl or Demon Kid will punish the player).
- Two Beings, One Body: The result of showing love in the name of Sylvian with a willing character, or even a ghoul. For the Abominable Marriage, it becomes a case of three beings in one body, with another head sticking out of a shoulder.
Recruitable Characters
Le'garde, the Captain
Le'garde
- All Your Powers Combined: He believes that he can become a god surpassing the New Gods by learning to embody the aspects they represent. Depending on the path you take, he may succeed.
- Ambiguously Human: Despite seemingly being a normal human, trying to take his soul will have nothing happen, even though you can succesfully do the same to nearly every other creature in the game, including the Girl with her ancient soul. There is no explanation for this, although it might be related to him being the subject of various prophecies, as well as having the interest of Nilvan, who is one of the New Gods.
- Amnesiac Hero: Should he be rescued, he'll state that he cannot remember anything but his name. It's revealed after dealing with François inside the Temple of Ascension in the Ma'habre of the past that it was all an act, tricking you into helping him reach godhood.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The implication that he's "the Kaiser" in Termina suggests that he successfully ascended to Godhood in the first game.
- Came Back Wrong: In the Knight's Ending S on Hard Mode. Not only does he shed his skin after his resurrection, his personality turns from Well-Intentioned Extremist to that of a bloodthirsty monster, all too eager to inflict the pain and suffering he experienced inside the dungeon.
- Chosen Conception Partner: To Nilvan, who bore his child as part of her plan to try to lengthen her existence in the world and create a beacon of hope for humanity.
- Cutting Off the Branches: It's heavily implied that the Kaiser in Termina is Le'garde, meaning he survived the events of the first game in one fashion or another. Kaiser's appearance resembles how Le'garde looks as a new god, which would seem to suggest that ending C2 is canon (although it's possible that D'arce's S ending is canon instead).
- Death of Personality: Once he becomes the Yellow King, “something wonderful” happens to Le’garde and he ceases to be.
- Deuteragonist: Out of all the recruitable characters, he’s the most important of them all, even if he dies his actions still influence a majority of the story.
- Dying as Yourself: Implied, after being slain as the Yellow King. A brief death cutscene shows his usual sprite as opposed to a Yellow King variation, so it can be assumed he reverted back to himself upon defeat.
- Expy:
- Similar to Griffith from Berserk, although he debatably has nobler intentions and doesn't end up committing nearly as many atrocities.
- He also could be seen as one to Rhaegar Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire, being popular yet reclusive men skilled in combat who become obsessed with prophecies they read in ancient texts. Both of them also ended up being driven by their obsessions to make the prophecies they read come true, to the point that it resulted in far too many casualties to count. And like Rhaegar, Le'garde believed that a child of his had an important part to play in the grander scheme of things, only to utterly fail her.
- As the Yellow King, he is naturally one to The King in Yellow: a usurper god who rules over a world long-since abandoned by its creators. The connection is furthered in Termina, where his very influence as the Kaiser is a maddening and corrupting force like a mental virus.
- Fallen Hero: Termina shows that Le'garde, the relatively decent knight who performed evil out of a genuine desire to make the world a better place, is no more. Only the Kaiser, the Yellow King that rules the Bremen Empire with an iron fist remains.
- Godhood Seeker: His main goal is to become a god.
- Immune to Mind Control: The player character and most party members will become possessed and attack the party if they wield the Miasma sword and their sanity gets low enough. Le'garde's version of the same cutscene instead shows him shrugging off the call of the blade and saying he "can handle it".
- Light Is Not Good: Has fair-colored hair and his armor appears shinier than D'arce's, making him look like the ideal hero or knight. Only, the genocide he committed to get the Cube of the Depths and various other crimes he had his mercenary army do show he is anything but that.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Sired The Girl with Nilvan as part of a larger scheme to bring in a New Age in order to help humanity progress.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He ends up on the receiving end of one, courtesy of an enraged Ragnvaldr once you enter the Ancient City of Ma'habre proper. Choosing to do nothing leads to the outlander caving his skull in, ending his life.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: No matter what he does or achieves, as per the sequel, when he became the Yellow King his influence was tuned out because he was overshadowed by the God Of Fear and Hunger, who is ironically the ascended form of the daughter (who he had with Nilvan) he discarded and never gave a thought about. Any success or achievements he has in the sequel no matter the ending will prove to be outmatched and ephemeral, as will he, compared to her own. In the end he himself faces the plight of the New Gods he wished to surpass, despite having succeeded in doing so on every level.
- Posthumous Character: He's already dead by the time you reach him in Hard Mode, regardless of how long you take.
- Slashed Throat: If you’re playing on Hard Mode or fail to reach him in time on Normal Mode, this is how he meets his end. He also dies this way if slain as the Yellow King.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Was so fixated on realizing his dream of a peaceful and unified kingdom that he went as far as to raid Oldegård, resulting in the deaths of many innocent people, in order to obtain the Cube of the Depths so that he could enter Ma'habre. He was also willing to have a child with Nilvan specifically to be used as a sacrifice so that humanity would develop and progress.
- Virtuous Character Copy: In a way that's only twistedly befitting for a Crapsack World like Fear & Hunger. Le'garde is clearly a Griffith expy who ends up becoming a Deity of Human Origin like Griffith had, but their goals and motivations are radically different. Griffith was a Devil in Plain Sight who was ultimately driven by his capricious self-absorbed behavior and singular desire to rule his own kingdom, to the point of massacring everyone he's ever led, taking Guts's eye and arm, and raping Casca into insanity. Le'garde genuinely cares about making the world a better place. He's driven to see a kingdom united through peace and compassion, and noticeably refuses to take any sexual advantage of D'arce, even if she offers herself up to him. Granted, none of this exactly halts his descent into becoming the Kaiser come Termina, but we're already talking about a substantially more morally-grey character compared to the unrepentant sociopathy of Griffith.
- Walking Spoiler: It's quite difficult to talk about Le'garde without going into detail about his morally dubious actions in order to become a god.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He seeks to usurp the New Gods because he believes it will make the world a better place.
Nas'hrah, the Head of the Wizard
Nas'hrah
- And I Must Scream: Termina has O'saa find him burnt to a crisp and completely blinded, having possibly been stuck in the dungeon for centuries, and implying that ending B is canon and that he's been burnt by Gro-Goroth's traces. If you get to Termina's ending B, O'saa just dumps him into a lake for any random schmuck to find.
- Attack Reflector: In Termina, he serves as an accessory, able to reflect otherworldly attacks.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Joyfully boasts about his reputation as the "Doom and Terror of Modern Man" and will quite pridefuly remind others of just how much horror he brought about on the west in the past.
- Death by Irony: For all the burning he does to just about anything and anyone, he ends up burned to a crisp and tossed aside just as he's hurling insults to the Traces Of Gro-goroth. Though as Termina shows, he managed to (barely) survive that too.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: His first instinct upon coming face-to-face with the trace of Gro-Goroth is to call him a "nasty, vile piss stain" and voice his intent to finally slay the god. Gro-Goroth responds by unceremoniously incinerating Nas'hrah to ash.
- Equippable Ally: Having been burnt to the point of incapacitation in Termina, he is now treated as an accessory that can reflect otherworldy attacks.
- Everyone Has Standards: Valteil's pedophiliac urges sicken him, and he outright says his possible death at the hands of the player was well-deserved.
- Evil Is Visceral: He's a severed head with strips of bloody viscera dangling off the remains of his neck, and he's by far the vilest companion you can recruit. For added effect, you find him resting in a corridor that's stacked floor to ceiling with bloody human corpses.
- Evil Teacher: His iteration in Dungeon Nights is still somewhat evil and is openly rude to all his students.
- Hidden Depths:
- Take him to the Throne of Ascension alongside Le'garde and he will do a surprisingly astute (if still crude) dissection of the pointlessness of ascending into a god, explaining how at the end of the day they're just slightly more important pawns in a much larger game and that attempts at controlling humanity are futile, and as beings born from chaos and luck, humans should thrive in chaos instead of looking onwards to divine salvation. The usually confident and unflappable Le'Garde can only muster a "Shut up, just shut up..." before sitting on the throne without any other attempt at a response.
- In Termina, When Le'Garde (now as the Kaiser) reveals his plan for humanity, Nas'hrah admits he likes it and almost wants to see where it goes if not for his sheer hatred for the man.
- Jerkass: Rude, egotistical, and has a fetish for setting people on fire. He often brags about the terrors he brought upon the western world and hurls insults at you. The New Gods even claimed that he sodomized anyone that crossed him when he joined their ranks.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Twice-over, even. Nas'hrah's preferred way of dealing with annoyances is to incinerate them, but Gro-Goroth burns Nas'hrah to a crisp should you face the boss with him in your party. Meanwhile, in Termina getting O'saa's Ending B will have him throw Nas'hrah into a lake.
- Losing Your Head: Through his arcane might, being decapitated by the Fellowship did little to weaken Nash'rah's sentience... or his tongue.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: If he's dropped down to zero Body, he will look towards the screen and snicker, coming out unharmed and continuing to fight like normal afterwards. Even being burned alive by (the traces of) Gro-goroth doesn't kill him, and he's found years later by O'saa still alive, albeit blinded and burnt to a crisp.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After beating Francóis, the player can choose to sit on the Throne of Ascension and become a New God. If the player has Nas'hrah in their party, in a surprisingly warning tone, a far cry from the raging Jerkass lines they're used to at this point, he'll warn them that becoming a New God will change nothing and that it is not what they think it is, having gone through it himself. Regardless, the choice is up to them.
- Out-of-Character Alert: In Termina, he normally dismisses nearly everyone as maggots. So when he drops the act and tells you to be careful with August, it adds further fuel to August being more than he seems to be.
- Overrated and Underleveled: Make no mistake, Nas'hrah is unkillable and has powerful spells at his disposal, and he is an exceptionally powerful sorcerer in lore who can burn even fellow New Gods to a crisp... in cutscenes. Unfortunately, his actual combat power is handicapped severely due to being unable to use equipment, so he is wholly reliant on his spells. If you can't keep replenishing his Mind points, he swiftly becomes one of the worst recruitable characters.
- Playing with Fire: Possibly to Pyromaniac levels, as burning things is his go-to method of attack outside of combat. He'll even do it to you, should you try to show love to him on an unused ritual circle.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: In Termina, he calls the people of Edo "inbred maggots" and revealed that the true reason as to why he formed the Yansa Aryuaban was out of spite for their culture.
- Redemption Demotion: If you fight him, you have no possible means of defeating him, and he calls forth a gigantic monster to crush you. While he's still nigh unkillable if you recruit him, and he has a full repertoire of spells at his disposal, Nas'hah can't summon any creatures as powerful as the one he uses on you while he's an enemy.
- Token Evil Teammate: You can get him to join you through a hefty appeasing effort. If you do so, he will always come off as the vilest character you can recruit, with Enki's dubious magic practices and Le'garde's ambitious extremism coming across as small potatoes to his callous attitude and tyrannical actions in the past.
Moonless
Moonless
- Androcles' Lion: Give her a few pieces of meat while she's attacking the party due to hunger, and she'll repay you by staying on your side until the end of the game.
- Big Friendly Dog: Well, a wolf, but she has rather doglike mannerisms and is a loyal party member after she's recruited. It's Played With in the sequel, as while she definitely lives up to the "big" part, she's initially hostile with you until August intervenes. But even then, it's indirectly stated that she's been her loyal and helpful self to Ragnvaldr's family for generations.
- The Bus Came Back: She returns in Termina as a boss fight, having grown much bigger over the years under the care of August.
- Canis Major: She's grown quite a lot under the care of Ragnvaldr and his descendants, seeing as she towers over humans by the time Termina starts.
- Continuity Nod: In her boss fight in Termina, she has the cursed sword Miasma and Black Steel stabbed inside her.
- Cute Monster: Despite her monstrous appearance, she is quite cute and acts like a normal dog would once recruited.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The fact that she looks like a mutated, eldritch wolf doesn't make her any more evil than the other dangers of The Dungeon, and a few pieces of meat is all the player needs to get on her good side and win her loyalty.
- Dogs Love Fire Hydrants: She will occasionally urinate on random objects to mark her territory.
- Extreme Omnivore: She's recruited by offering her two pieces of rotten meat, and she can happily eat other rotten food items that would make other characters sick.
- Eye Scream: Her lower left eye appears to have been scratched out by something between the first game and the sequel.
- Heroic Dog: Once recruited, she becomes a loyal companion and even makes sure to protect The Girl in the Void, who's probably the most vulnerable party member.
- Interspecies Friendship: She protects The Girl in the Void, staying by her side and making sure no harm befalls her and in Dungeon Nights, when she's by The Girl's side, The Girl often pets her.
- Interspecies Romance: Subverted. Although implied, as there appear to have been cases where humans or guards made love to other Moonless which resulted in the creation of the Moonless Guard.
- Loyal Animal Companion: More eldritch than the majority of them given her extra pair of eyes and very sharp teeth, but still counts.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: She has lots of teeth, which are visible at all times. She gains even more teeth in Termina, to the point of having a second row of them.
- Noble Wolf: It's Played With since she starts as an enemy (including in Termina), but once she's been added to your party, she becomes a loyal but no less strong addition. Termina even shows that she's stayed close with Ragnvaldr's family, if August's thoughts are any indication, implicitly protecting them.
- Really 700 Years Old: Despite being at least 352 years old in Termina and growing much larger, toothier, and furrier, she doesn't actually show any signs of aging on her face. This is despite the fact that she does appear older in the first game when hit by the Ruin attack of miner spectres.
- Tastes Like Friendship: You can recruit her by feeding her two pieces of Rotten Meat.
- Team Pet: Should you choose to recruit her, as she's the only animal you can have.
- Undying Loyalty: She is technically a dog, so this is inevitable. It's even shown in the sequel that she stayed close to Ragnvaldr's family, given her familial bond with his (implied) descendant, August.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Like pretty much every other NPC in the game, you can sacrifice the ever-loyal Moonless at the Ritual Circles. The text box explicitly states she doesn't understand your intentions before you sacrifice her.
The Girl
The Girl
- Ambiguously Human: Having Le'garde as her father should say that she is at least half human, but the divine influence in her conception and birth muddies the waters a little. Not helped with how she can still die like every other human, either by losing in battle or from the player indulging in some Video Game Cruelty Potential. Yet even before she becomes the God of Fear and Hunger, her potential is easily sensed and recognized.
- Break the Cutie: The girl is subjected to never-ending torment throughout the game. She ascends to become the God of Fear and Hunger, one rivaling the power of the Old Gods, specifically because they were the only feelings she ever knew while being born and raised inside the nightmarish dungeon according to the Skin Bibles in the sequel. However, the kindness the player character showed her helped temper her suffering, as her influence helps raise humanity to new heights in the Age of Cruelty and beyond instead of deteriorating them in some manner, as was the case with every other old or new god who all evoked meaningless self-indulgent suffering, were unable to comprehend humanity or became apathetic over time, had incomprehensible eldritch goals, and/or were unable to enact permanent change.
- Children Forced to Kill: In the environment of the dungeons, she'll be forced to participate in combat just like the adults, possibly resulting in her attacking enemies and killing them.
- Cosmic Plaything: It's revealed in several notes that prior to being locked in a cage, the girl was horrifically tortured. She can also be potentially sacrificed in a variety of cruel ways, be mutilated by the horrors of the dungeon like the rest of the party members, be brought face-to-face with the corpse of her estranged father, and be forced into killing the player who has served as her caretaker. Canonically she breaks past this by not just being a sacrifice but ascending to become the God of Fear And Hunger, rivaling their power and surpassing their actions by teaching humanity how to surpass suffering and overcome strife.
- Harmful to Minors: Being a recruitable character, once she is added to your party, she gets exposed to all sorts of violence and can even be a victim of it should she suffer injuries or be sacrificed. She can also get exposed to sex if she sees the bunnymask orgy or you showing love to a party member on a ritual circle.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Dungeon Nights mode shows her eyes to be blue and it also gives us the rare moments where she smiles.
- Interspecies Friendship: If you've brought both her and Moonless to the Void, you can find the two hiding together, with the wolf having kept the girl safe and in good condition in the nightmarish realm. A more obvious example would be in Dungeon Nights, where The Girl can be found petting Moonless for most of the game.
- Joke Character: Being a child, she's the weakest character, unable to equip heavy armor, deal damage unarmed, or use weapons that aren't daggers or skeleton arms. She also often endangers herself by Taking the Bullet for other party members (even magically-made ones), making it harder to keep her alive.
- Living MacGuffin: A rare optional example. As you progress through the game, it's made increasingly clear that the girl has some sort of higher purpose that doesn't come to fruition until she is successfully escorted from the Dungeons to the Altar of Darkness. But it's ultimately up to the player to decide on whether or not to see that journey to its completion. As per the sequel, it is canon that due to a balance of the extreme suffering she went through being tempered by the kindness and care the player showed her in the first game, she does indeed become the God of Fear and Hunger responsible for humanity's growth and progress in the face of strife.
- Magical Barefooter: A Living MacGuffin with an ancient soul, who doesn't wear any shoes.
- No Name Given: Is only ever referred to as The Girl. Considering both Le’garde and Nilvan seem to have left her alone in the dungeons for all her life, it’s likely she never had one in the first place. Taking her to the end of The Gauntlet gives her a name (or at least a title): The God Of Fear And Hunger.
- The Quiet One: She speaks very little, usually only a word at a time when she does, and even these are extremely rare.
- Taking the Bullet: If an enemy attack is to land on another party member with less than 25% of their health remaining, The Girl will move in to take the hit in their stead.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: The player can give her a doll which seems to be the only part of the main game you can ever see her happy.
- Trauma Conga Line: Her whole life, essentially. Ever since she was born, she witnessed the cruelty of the dungeon, and was left to rot in a cage — despite still being prepubescent. It only gets worse from there, as Termina all but states that she eventually lost her humanity.
- Tritagonist: While seemingly an unimportant normal girl she’s one of the most important recruitable party members, second only behind Le’garde.
- Utility Party Member: A particularly cruel example. She's as useful in combat as you would expect a tortured and malnourished child to be. Her main use in the game is to be traded to Pocketcat for rare and powerful items, or to the Lady of Moon to restore your party's lost limbs. She's also instrumental in getting Ending A, though that ends in you fighting her as the final boss.
- Video Game Caring Potential: The player can give the girl a dagger and a doll as gifts, and even refuse to sacrifice her and bring her all the way to the end of the game; though the latter results in having to fight her as the final boss.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: There's nothing stopping the player from using The Girl to get something. Giving her to Pocketcat in exchange for a powerful item, sacrificing her to the Lady of Moon to restore lost limbs, can be sacrificed at a Ritual Circle, and she can be fed to the Human Hydra. What does giving her to the Human Hydra do? It does absolutely nothing except having the creature(s) thank you for the girl.
The Demon Child
- Eyeless Face: He has horns from his eye sockets where the eyes should actually be. Doesn't make him any less capable of fighting, however.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Once the demon child grows up and can fight alongside the party, he can be given a name of your choice.
- I Love the Dead: The creation of a Demon Child requires the player to put their seed into a corpse, regardless of their gender.
- Parental Incest: You can try inviting the Demon Child (who was created from your seed) to form a Marriage, but the game will immediately punish you for it.
- Rapid Aging: Grows from a fetus into a child in a matter of hours.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Much like the Girl, there's nothing stopping you from discarding the Demon Child; be it handing him over to the Human Hydra or giving him to Pocket Cat. Only only that, but if you talk to the Demon Child after giving him to Pocket Cat, the dialogue will state he looks even more distant than before, as if trying to suppress his memories.
Skeletons
- Boring, but Practical: Sure, skeletons are uncontrollable, but they can be equipped with most weapons and armor in the game with no penalty at the low, low cost of the 30 mind used to resurrect them, and have no penalties for hunger and mind shortages.
- Dem Bones: Is a skeleton, with all the capabilities of one. At least they’re immune to bleeding.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Can be named once you successfully resurrect them.
- Luck-Based Mission: Reviving a skeleton is guaranteed when you cast Necromancy. What you do the coin flip for is if it’s an ally or if it immediately turns around and attacks you.
- Necromancer: Like the Ghoul, recruiting one is as easy as casting Necromancy on a skeleton you find on the ground.
- Nonhumans Lack Attributes: Attempting to form a Marriage with a skeleton is impossible for fairly obvious reasons.
Ghouls
- And I Must Scream: If threatened in combat, they will tell you that they want to die, suggesting that they're aware of their suffering.
- Boring, but Practical: Ghouls are uncontrollable in combat and cannot equip weapons. However, they function as alright meat shields, and cannot object to you using them as sacrifices or as Marriage fodder. They’re also more common than skeletons.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Some ghouls are already ambulatory and hostile. There is absolutely nothing stopping you from killing them and promptly re-reviving them on your side.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Can be named whatever you feel like after successfully reviving them.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: If threatened, they will tell you that they want to die.
- I Love the Dead: The easiest party member to turn into a Marriage.
- Luck-Based Mission: Recruiting one is done via a coin flip. Either it succeeds and you get a new party member, or the spell fails and you have to try again.
- Multiple-Choice Past: While the ghouls can’t properly express it, they actually have interesting stories from back when they were alive.
- One possible past would be as a farmer who resorted to graverobbing in desperate times, only to succumb to the dungeon.
- Another one could be a guard who locked himself in a cell to avoid the horrors other guards committed against each other, or one used by the dark priests as a Human Sacrifice.
- Necromancer: Is the product of you casting Necromancy on a human corpse.
- Our Ghouls Are Creepier: Overlapping with zombies as well, thanks to their undead origins.
- The Unintelligible: Only communicate in grunts and snarls if you try talking with them. The game does remark about them trying and failing to tell you about their past life, however.
Old Gods
Gro-goroth
Gro-goroth
The Old God of human sacrifices and destruction.- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Gro-goroth considers sacrifices, and by extension, the spilling of blood, noble actions that mortals should strive for in his name, to the point where he is actually confused on WHY a human wouldn't strive to do that.
- Blood Magic: The creator of it, given with his connection to spilling blood.
- Body Horror: How else would you describe a being with eyes bulging through their whole body, a mouth on their torso and creeping, wood-like hands? Disturbingly, the Gro-goroth you encounter in the game is just a fragment of the original Gro-goroth. One must wonder how the original would look like…
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: After defeating the (traces) of Gro-goroth, and selecting the option that you wish to crush the Old Gods, it will happily inform you that he is simply a small fragment of the original Gro-goroth, and that it could crush you at any moment. Then he reveals humanity's true form to you, and, well…
- Cannibal Clan: His Wolfmask cult engage in cannibalism and self-mutilation, being a grisly counterpart to the Bunnymask cult of Sylvian. This craving for flesh is potent enough to ensnare individuals and push them into a state of madness, and the player can join this feast to erase all hunger.
- Destroyer Deity: According to the Studies of Gro-goroth, destruction is seen as a part of the natural order, with death being necessary to pave the way for nascence and growth.
- God of Evil: Subverted; being the god of destruction and human sacrifices, he wishes for blood to be spilled in his name and embodies death and all it encompasses — chaos, anarchy, sacrifice, and war. However, while those things are seen as evil to humans, Gro-goroth himself is a fundamental aspect of the cosmos, and literally cannot understand why people don't want to spill blood all the time.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Ending B has you fight his traces. Even after victory, Gro-goroth reveals humanity's true form to you, causing you to die instantly.
- Human Disguise: Being one of the more curious Gods, he is speculated to walk among men disguised as a human to observe their activities.
- War God: It comes with being a god of destruction and bloodshed.
- You Cannot Grasp the True Form: As it turns out, the Gro-goroth you see is only a trace of the god's existence. Showing his full and true form almost instantly drives the player character so insane, their body shuts down.
Sylvian
Sylvian
Old God of Love. Creator of humankind and patron of Flower Magic. Her followers are the Bunny Masks that lose themselves in sexual activities.- All Your Powers Combined: Her tumor can grow into the shape of any of the four playable characters and is able to use their abilities depending on the form.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: She loves humanity, but her love comes in the form of a twisted unity between two partners in the case of The Marriage. She also wants them to make love in her name, regardless of the morality behind the act (though consent is mandatory).
- Combat Tentacles: Her main method of attack in her boss fight features her striking and binding the party with four massive tentacles.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Everything about this god is either a blatant sexual innuendo or straight-up sexual with no allusion needed.
- Everyone Has Standards: Her definition of "love" can get extremely icky at times (she takes no issue at necrophilia, for one), but in earlier versions of the game, trying to perform any of her rituals on the Girl will only grant the player a game over at the gods' hands (later versions don't even let you try with the Girl, but you can still suffer similar consequences for trying to perform Sylvian rituals with the Demon Child). For Sylvian, consent is crucial to her rituals and favor.
- Final Boss: On the harder difficulties, she’s the last mandatory boss on Ending D, Ending C-II, and Enki’s ending S.
- God of Good: Subverted; while love, fertility, and creation are seen as positive traits, Sylvian is far too eldritch to be healthy for humans, and her takes on marriage and love are twisted at best.
- Love Goddess: She is the goddess of love, fertility, and creation. Her symbol resembles a vagina while her body takes a more… phallic look.
- A Party, Also Known as an Orgy: Her Bunnymask cult engages in an eternal, anonymous orgy, in an erotic counterpart to the Wolfmask cult of Gro-goroth. This lusting of flesh is potent enough to ensnare individuals and push them into a state of madness, and the player can join this orgy to heal all bodily damage.
- Sex God: Being the goddess of love and fertility, worship of her is focused on sexual intercourse. It's even stated in the lore that she wished for her creations to make love to each other, and her physical form combines both phallic and yonic elements.
- Sex Magic: Her whole schtick. It's been noted that ritualistic intercourse is a way to gain her favor or be healed by her powers.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Try the rather vile action of attempting a Marriage with the Demon Child, and she'll waste no time punishing you for it.
Alll-Mer
Alll-Mer
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: His backstory and teachings take clear inspiration from Christianity and Jesus Christ. One could even say that knights like D'arce, who are his ardent followers, evoke the image of a Crusader.
- Messianic Archetype: Evokes that of Jesus Christ. Both were born to mortal parents, had a large number of followers, crucified, and resurrected. The only difference is that he exacted revenge on the people who killed him when he returned. Oddly enough, one of the answers to Valteil's question on Alll-Mer is his inspiration and the Dark Priests refer to him as "Our Christ".
- Multiple-Choice Past: In Termina, his skin bible reveals that there are two stories about the origins of Alll-Mer. The common one is similar to Jesus and the other says that he was created by the deity Vitruvia as the perfect human being in response to the imperfections in Sylvian's own creation of humans. While the two stories don't contradict each other, they are both ideologically opposed. The former is about a mortal man ascending to Godhood by his own merits, while the other makes him out to be yet another extension of the higher powers.
- My Nayme Is: His name is spelt with three Ls instead of two.
God of the Depths
God of the Depths
An obscure god even by the standards of the somewhat forgotten Old Gods, with a particular relation to the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger.- Divine Date: His lover, The Maiden of the Depths, was a mortal woman, but that didn't dissuade him from taking her as a bride.
- Interspecies Romance: In front of the Thicket, Ragnavaldr recalls an old folks tale about The Maiden of the Depths, a human woman who fell in love with the Old God. Though the two couldn't be together, she still tries to bridge their worlds to this day.
- Not Quite Dead: Despite being used to create the God of Fear and Hunger, Termina shows that his influences are still present years later, with the Beekeeper being one of his followers.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Though he is one of the more obscure Older Gods, he was instrumental in the ascension of the Girl to the God of Fear and Hunger.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With The Maiden of the Depths. According to the lore given about him, they couldn't be together since The Maiden was a mortal.
- Womb Level: After destroying the three purple organs, the mouth of the God opens up to let you inside the gauntlet. It's filled with traps, unique enemies, and the traces of Gro-Goroth himself.
Rher
Rher
Older God of the Moon.- The Baby of the Bunch: Is referred to as "The Delinquent One".
- Out of Focus: Quite literally the reason Rher lacks a lot of presence in the first game. The Dungeons of Fear and Hunger take place underground, and he can't influence where moonlight can't touch.
- Screw Destiny: He does not believe that humans have a right to ascend to godhood, going so far as to take The Girl away to avert the prophecies. This is why both Pocketcat and the Lady of the Moon are willing to bargain her from you.
- Trickster God: He is the God of Mischief and insanity.
New Gods
In General
- Big Bad Ensemble: The four named New Gods are the main antagonists of the setting, responsible for much of the events of the game.
- Deity of Human Origin: All of them were once humans who sat at the Throne of Ascension in the ancient city of Ma'habre.
- Foil: The four main ones each stand as archetypes to one of the four player characters:
- Cahara and Nilvan share their soul type, that being the soul of the endless. While Nilvan is a mythologized woman thinking that Humans Are Special as a whole, Cahara is a man of lowly background who's initially only in it for himself and his immediate others.
- Francóis and D'arce share their soul type, that of the soul of domination. While Francóis is perfectly willing to flaunt his superiority over others, D'arce is surprisingly submissive and content to follow Le'garde's whims.
- Valteil and Enki share their soul type, that being the soul of the enlightened. While Valteil will go to horrific extremes towards others to indulge in his intelligence, and completely loses the will to live once faced with his inevitable downfall, Enki's abuses are mostly directed towards himself, and he actively chooses to cancel his intended self-sacrifice in the pursuit of knowledge.
- The Tormented One and Ragnvaldr share their soul type, that being the soul of the tormented. While the Tormented One spreads pain and suffering to others, Ragnvaldr is a Cosmic Plaything who manages to be the Nice Guy of the party.
Francóis, the Dominating One
Francóis/The Dominating One
"So, you are finally here. You think you can overthrow my absolute dominance? Haha! We will see about that!"
A New God who rules over the city of Ma'habre with an iron fist.- Fatal Flaw: His present self will tell you that his young, freshly-ascended self was cocky and arrogant. This flaw can be exploited to make the fight with him dramatically easier.
- Final Boss: On Fear and Hunger Mode, he’s the last mandatory boss of Ending D and Ending C-IInote .
- A God Am I: True to his title, he is the most arrogant of The Fellowship and wants to bend everything and everyone to his will. His present self, however, has mellowed out a bit and is willing to help you defeat his past self.
- Philosopher's Stone: Metaphorically. Past Francóis claims to be close to a kind of power beyond normally alloted to New Gods, and this can be seen in how his leaden form seems to be beginning to turn to gold. Unfortunately for him, all endings require defeating him before whatever power he's gained is complete.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Failing a coin toss will have him force the player to say they love him as he bends the character over to have his way with them.
- Shadow Archetype: Of D'arce, befitting holders of the Dominating Soul. D'arce's New God form resembles Francóis, and in certain endings both end up overshadowed by Le'garde.
Nilvan, the Endless One
Nilvan/The Endless One
A New God that may appear in dreams. Believes in humanity and their potential in her own way. Has a certain sort of relation to Le'garde.- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Not obvious in-game, but in her Dungeon Nights portrait, where she is shown to lack nipples.
- Chosen Conception Partner: Searched for a man who could bear her child in order to lengthen her existence and produce a beacon of hope that would help humanity realise its potential, this man being Le'garde.
- Females Are More Innocent: Of the four members of the Fellowship, she's both the only female and the only one not actively desiring to hurt others, being perfectly willing to offer up her soul without a fight.
- Humans Are Special: Believes in the endless potential of humans. To achieve this, she and Le'garde sired a child to usher in a new age for humanity by bringing her to the Altar of Darkness to become the God of Fear and Hunger.
- Luke, I Am Your Mother: Her child that she conceived for what she believes to be the greater good is the very girl who you find in a cage in the dungeons.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's completely topless. Although players don't get much to appreciate from her sprite in a normal playthrough, her more detailed portrait in Dungeon Nights shows that she is very attractive.
- Parental Abandonment: While her estranged lover Le'garde at least has the excuse of being imprisoned, and thus unable to care for their child, Nilvan had every means to do so due to being a God, among other things. Instead, her child was promptly dumped in the dungeons to be tortured and caged. Though given the fact that she bore said child specifically to serve as a sacrifice to end the Cruel Age, this was probably intentional.
- The Smurfette Principle: She is the only female New God among the group, although it's very likely there are more female New Gods who are retired in the Grand Hall.
- Token Good Teammate: For a very loose definition of "good" in this case, but compared to other members of the Fellowship, she is a more benevolent deity. Unlike them, she doesn't necessarily aim for nor relish in the suffering of others, and she does seem to care about humanity as a whole in her own way. That being said, she so readily subjected her daughter to become a Cosmic Plaything in order to create the God of Fear and Hunger and didn't seem to have considered the numerous ways her plan could've backfired.
- The Unfought: Unlike the other New Gods, Nilvan offers up her Endless Soul without a fight.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: The reason she is willing to sacrifice her daughter is because she believes it would help humanity reach its potential in order to usher in a new age.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Her character design goes without any kind of upper garment whatsoever.
Valteil, the Enlightened One
Valteil/The Enlightened One
The left brain is thinking of creative ways to combat…
A New God in charge of the Grand Library in Ma'habre.- Despair Event Horizon: He hangs himself when he realises that he and the other New Gods were merely pawns in the grand scheme of things. Though this did not seem to kill him instantly.
- A God Am I: He wants to create artificial life rather than stone servants, as he does not want his creations to outlive him.
- Pædo Hunt: The "Uterus" enemy was made to satisfy him, and creepily comes with a doll of its unborn fetus inside of it. Nosramus directly implies such of him and Nas'hrah outright calls him a child molester.
- Puzzle Boss: Talking to him in battle leads to him asking you questions about the lore of the game. Answering correctly causes a good deal of damage to all present parts of Valteil.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: His pedophilic desires disgust even someone like Nas'hrah.
Ronn Chambara, the Tormented One
Ronn Chambara/The Tormented One
The tormented one takes a step towards you...
A new God that resides in the Temple of Torment in Ma'habre.- Body Horror: Doesn't have any trace of skin on him, showing just muscular anatomy with only the lower part of his body covered by what appears to be a torn robe made of flesh, nor does he have a mouth.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: An enemy associated with him called The Red Man was a victim of this courtesy of the Tormented One himself, and was subjected to it for hundreds of years. While it wasn't described what exactly was done to the pitiful creature, given the fact that it resembles the Tormented One (who looks like all his skin was flayed away), it likely was extremely painful, to say the least.
- Chain Pain: He can summon the Chains of Torment to rip your skin open during the battle.
- Expy: His interest in combining beauty with pain and torment and seeing them as another form of art, along with his wheels of torment, bring to mind the Cenobites.
- Hidden Depths: Both in this game and Termina, you can find books that contain his poetry and love letters, which shows that he has quite an artistic and romantic side. Interestingly, the poem you can read uses some rather macabre imagery.
- I Was Quite the Looker: Was described in the prophecies as being just as attractive as Nilvan before he became what he is now.
- Nightmare Fetishist: His written poetry combines some romantic prose and imagery with that of viscera and gore.
- No Mouth: As if to emphasize how inhuman he has become post-ascension, he doesn't have a mouth, rendering him speechless.
- Shielded Core Boss: In his second phase, he whips out the wheels of torment to protect him in battle. The party must jam the second and third wheel to attack him directly.
- The Speechless: He doesn't talk at all, owing to the fact he doesn't have a mouth, and makes gestures to interact with others in Dungeon Nights mode.
- Torture Technician: His Chains of Torment can easily flay your party members, he has a rather vested interest in pursuing pain and torment as another art form, and the Red Man enemies were rather unfortunate souls that he decided to torture for centuries just because. Oh, and his title is literally the Tormented One.
- Unexplained Recovery: It's possible to summon him as a bonus boss in the sequel, despite his death being a prerequisite for the implicitly canon Enki S-Ending. Ultimately justified by how New Gods seem to never truly "die", instead being interred into the Hall of the Gods once they've achieved the nadir of their decline.
The Forgotten One
The mysterious fifth member of the Fellowship who abandoned the quest for ascension and was lost to history. For details on the Forgotten One, please see Nosramus, the Alchemist.
New Gods of the Grand Hall
New Gods of the Grand Hall
A massive pantheon of New Gods located in a large banquet hall.- Always a Bigger Fish: In terms of power, they're far inferior to the Old Gods.
- Deity of Human Origin: The New Gods of the Grand Hall were initially humans before they used the Throne of Ascension to become the beings they are today.
- Everyone Has Standards: They're disgusted by Francóis' selfishness and his choice to rule over Ma'habre with an iron fist; the New Gods flat-out say he deserves to die.
- Mr. Exposition: They give lore information about characters and events, even characters from the sequel. They will only do this three times per run unless you Save Scum.
Bethel
- The Ghost: He isn't among the gods in the Grand Hall, but he is briefly mentioned
- Noodle Incident: According to the New Gods, Nas'hrah somehow tricked him out of the ownership of the grand libraries. This is not elaborated upon, as the New Gods themselves are befuddled as to how he fell for it.
- Too Dumb to Live: Apparently, despite knowing Nas'hrah and what kind of person he is, he managed to lose the grand libraries to him. Even the other New Gods are at a loss as to how he fell for it.
Bosses
Crow Mauler
Crow Mauler/Captain Rudimer
A terrifying presence has entered the room…
"He was set on purifying the dungeons from filth and deprivement. Little did he know that he would become of the black himself."
A powerful bird-headed foe who prowls the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger. Before he became the merciless Crow Mauler, he was Captain Rudimer of the Kingdom of Rondon. When the madness from the ancient catacombs began to spread to the dungeons built on top of it, Captain Rudimer set out on a mission to purge the evil infesting its halls. Needless to say, it didn't end well for him.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Bear Traps won't remove his legs though they will freeze him in place. Otherwise averted, blinding and poisoning him is the recommended way to survive his attacks and deplete his high health pool.
- Creepy Crows: He's a deadly crow-headed killer with a maul for an arm that endlessly stalks the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger and persistently hunts the heroes as they wander its corridors. He also controls crows in battle. It doesn't get any creepier than that.
- The Dreaded: His mere presence strikes a chord of terror in the heroes before they even know he exists, as noted by the message that pops up once he appears: "A terrifying presence has entered the room."
- Expy: He is based on Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2, and fills the same role of a persistent, semi-invincible antagonist who stalks the hero. One of his scenes, observing the party from behind a set of bars, overtly references one of the most iconic Pyramid Head scenes.
- Eye Scream: He has the unique ability to call forth a murder of crows who will peck out the heroes' eyes, rendering them blind permanently. If this happens to the Player Character, the entire screen will be blacked out to reflect this.
- Fallen Hero: He was originally a noble knight captain who aspired to destroy the source of the dungeon's corruption. Now he is one of the many murderous monstrosities he sought to eliminate by whatever means necessary.
- Off with His Head!: Falling victim to his "Peck" attack guarantees that this will happen to the party members.
- Super-Persistent Predator: While it was already pretty determined in its intent to kill you, this gets cranked up to eleven if Le'garde is found alive and joins your party. Not only will the crow mauler suddenly become much more aggressive in its hunt for you, it can also show up on any level of the dungeon.
- Underground Monkey: You can find a two-headed version of him by falling down a hole in the Gauntlet.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Played With. Players who have made it long enough into the game to start to encounter him have probably managed to learn at least enough of the game's systems to be able to see through and work around at least some of the dirty tricks it will use against them. The Crow Mauler, however, is there to teach them the lesson that even if they think they have mastered the basics of the game and gotten wise to how it can screw them over, it will always be able to pull out a much nastier curveball to throw at them. Not only does his torso have a ludicrously high HP pool, the Crow Mauler has an insta-kill attack and can deal massive damage coupled with very dangerous status effects such as broken bones and permanent blindness.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: The only thing he's wearing is a flimsy piece of cloth, though given how insanely difficult of an enemy he is, he probably has no need for any sort of armor.
- Was Once a Man: Used to be a knight named Rudimer who was in charge of the dungeon's former troops before all of them either succumbed to the madness or became monsters, both of which happened to him.
Human Hydra
Human Hydra
A many-headed monstrosity that serves as a unique encounter in the dungeons. Is completely inconsequential to the plot.- Body of Bodies: A group of guards tried to perform a Marriage of Flesh to save themselves from the madness and sickness the dungeon induces. The ritual did not work as these guards probably planned, as they became a malformed, multi-headed creature afterwards.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Offer up a party member to be eaten by it? You get no reward. Refuse their request for food? You suffer no repercussions. Take a Third Option and fight them? You earn no loot.
- I'm a Humanitarian: It is so hungry it's willing to eat people to stave off the Horror Hunger. Because it is immobile, the only way for it to eat people is if the player chooses to offer up one of the party members to it.
- Optional Boss: Completely unnecessary to the plot whatsoever. Killing the thing doesn't affect the plot in any way, nor does it have any loot in a fight.
- Piñata Enemy: Doubly Subverted; it has no loot drops nor any rewards to collect upon being slain. However, it has a useful perk in being able to farm party members' Body (with Ring of Wraiths / Needle Worm) or Mind (with Sorcerer's Stone), similar to Doors. This can be done infinitely, as running from the fight regenerates any heads cut off, provided at least one of the eight heads is kept intact.
- Sir Swearsalot: Constantly uses profanity, though given its current state it has a right to be surly.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: If you decide to fight it to see what it gets, it will both insult you and beg you to stop, unable to defend itself. When you do kill it... you get absolutely nothing.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If you decide to sacrifice either the girl or the Demon Kid to it, you get... absolutely nothing. Downplayed in that if you refuse to offer anything up, you still get nothing.
- Warm-Up Boss: Serves as a lesson to the player that not every action or quest yields a good reward.
- Zero-Effort Boss: It does not, and can not, fight back.
Salmonsnake
Salmonsnake
A massive, ancient, axolotl-like creature that resides in underground waterways.- Non-Indicative Name: It resembles a giant axolotl rather than a salmon or snake. See Punny Name below.
- Piñata Enemy: Not only does its corpse yield a lot of meat, its soul stone also prevents limb loss when equipped.
- Punny Name: The name Salmonsnake is a literal translation from Finnish to English of the word "Lohikäärme", which is "dragon". The author felt the only animal resembling a cross between a snake and a salmon was… an axolotl.
Iron Shakespeare
- Animated Armor: Beating his corpse reveals that there is no body inside the suit.
- Fallen Hero: He was sent to the Dungeon by the Kingdom of Rondon for aid, only to succumb to the maddening force of the Dungeon and now wanders the halls for intruders.
- Fat Bastard: He is a giant, fat knight in heavy armor patrolling the halls to find anyone to pummel.
- Playing with Fire: He can set his two maces on fire to add extra misery to his attacks.
Butterfly
- Earn Your Happy Ending: It's implied he gets his wish to turn into a butterfly if you were to spare him and destroy the organ inside the Temple of Domination.
- Kick the Dog: He's one of the few harmless inhabitants of the dungeons and even seems to be more afraid of you than you could be of him. But pushing through with Cockroach King's request means killing him in battle.
- Non-Action Guy: He does not want to fight at all if you were to battle him and mostly asks to be left alone.
Lord of the Flies
- Dressing as the Enemy: You can wear its skin after defeating it so that you can be left alone by the other Lord of the Flies.
- Puppeteer Parasite: A variant of him can be found controlled by the brain flower.
- Subliminal Seduction: Its voice is slowed-down speech, such as "Yeah?" when starting combat and "Hey" when attacking with its arms.
- Weaponized Stench: They smell so bad that they can force the player to vomit so hard they hurt themselves.
The Cavemother
- Baby Factory: The Cavemother sports a heavily pregnant belly and large breasts, likely from constantly being pregnant and laying eggs which eventually hatch into Cave Gnomes.
- The Determinator: After her first defeat, she will fly away, only to return and fight with her wings cut off.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: Some areas in the dungeon are overrun with her offspring who keep spawning endlessly, which raises the question whether the countless corpses in the caves were her unwilling lovers who later became food for her children.
Darkness
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Every turn it gets closer and closer, and you can't hurt it.
- Big Red Devil: Lacks the red skin, but has a distinctive goat-like head.
- Dark Is Evil: It comes with being named "Darkness" and serving Nas'hrah.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The only time we see this creature is during the fight with Nas'hrah. There is no existing lore explaining what it is, and Nas'hrah never summons it again nor refers to its existence.
- Invincible Minor Minion: Only summoned during the fight with Nas'hrah, and you cannot kill it no matter how strong you are.
- Non-Standard Game Over: It will gradually approach the party during Nas'hrah's fight, and once it reaches the players, it crushes them all, killing them instantly. The only two ways to survive is to run away(Nas'hrah will vanish for the rest of the run), or recruit Nas'hrah into your party.
White Angel
- Razor Wings: Their wings cannot let them fly, but they will cut you in half whenever they can.
Night Lurch
- Puppeteer Parasite: A variant of one can be found controlled by the brain flower.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The two used to be rapists before they were cast into the dungeons and will force themselves on your character, in or out of combat.
Skin Granny
- Tear Off Your Face: One of her arms can rip your face off and wear it Leatherface style for a One-Hit Kill.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: She was dreamed up by Ragnvaldr within the dungeon, recalling the story of a boogieman from Oldegård who disguised herself as a harmless old lady.
Old Guardian
- Scarf of Asskicking: Wears a red scarf and can put up quite a fight even after centuries. Showing his scarf to his past self will prove to him that the player has beaten him.
Armored & Spectral Knight
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Swore to serve Nosramus, even in death, because he saved his life in the dungeons.
- Dual Boss: His corporeal body will summon his spectral form to aid him in his fight.
Greater Blight
- Almighty Idiot: In spite of having divine powers comparable to the New Gods as stated below, it's little more than an animalistic monster who lacks sapience and attacks on instinct.
- Animalistic Abomination: It doesn't get more animalistic and abominable than an ancient, eldritch reptile that has outright turned into a T. rex creature upon its ascension into the green hue.
- Blessed with Suck: Despite gaining powers comparable to a New God, the Greater Blights can't do anything with their new abilities as they've become little more animals and act on instinct. They just wander and look for things to eat or attack in The Void, which, unfortunately for the Players, includes them.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: A red T. rex that charges in from the shadows of the green hue. There's only a single (easily missible) mention of them before you meet it in the Hall of the Gods if asked specifically about it. In addition, none of the game's endings require you to confront it, they don't drop any loot, and it's stronger than the vast majority of the other bosses within the Dungeon. As such, the only reason to go out of your way to beat it is bragging rights.
- Physical God: The New Gods state that the Lizardmen once desired to ascend into godhood just like humans currently wish to do, thus the Greater Blight is the Lizardmen's counterpart to mankind's New Gods in both shape and power.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Once it has you in its sights, it won't stop coming until it's caught you (or you hide in one of the holes, which only serves as temporary deterrence). Notably, it's the only wandering enemy in the first game you can't run away from once engaged in combat.
- T. Rexpy: It looks like a fearsome T. rex, save the fact that it has no eyes, no teeth, no skin, and three fingers on each hand.
Monsters
Jaggedjaws
While one may be tempted to linger outside the dungeon's entrance to scour for items, remaining for too long would cause a pack of hounds to chase down the player. The result of Francóis' arrogant attempts to safeguard his divinity, the Jaggedjaws are far from being man's best friend... unless you count being torn to shreds as playtime.
- Angry Guard Dog: Bred solely to ward off those trying ascend to godhood, and they are damn efficient at doing it.
- Beware of Vicious Dog: It is highly advised to avoid the Jaggedjaws until you are strong enough to defeat them, lest you be on the receiving end of a vicious mauling.
- Go Fetch: While they try to shake off the urge, should the player throw a stick towards them, even they can't stop themselves to fetch it.
- Mundane Solution: So these hounds are hot on your pursuit, they're very tricky to dodge in the overworld, have powerful attacks, a coin flip that can instantly kill you, and can even follow you to inside the dungeons. So what shall you do? Why, throw a stick to divert their attention away from you, of course! Alternatively, if you don't wanna use up a stick in your inventory, you can enter through the side door, where they can't follow you.
- One-Hit Kill: Failing the Jaggedjaws' coin flip attack will result in them pouncing onto the player, rending their body with their sharp teeth.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Even long after Francóis abandons his aspirations of world conquest, the Jaggedjaws remain to be a valuable minion of his, being found near the Thicket's entrance, sometimes rushing into the dungeon on harder difficulties, and being sicced onto the player should they dawdle on their way to the Golden Temple.
Guards
Basic Mooks found patroling the dungeon and its halls. Brutish, dumb, but no less horrifying, they can still impose great danger to a character at the start of their journey thanks to their cleavers and their pulsating stingers...
- Body Horror: Downplayed; the Guards' bodies are mishapen and have more muscle than their frames are built to accomodate. As what little clothing they do wear is much too small, it's implied that they weren't always like this...
- Dumb Muscle: Completely stupid to the point of being unintelligible. Talking to them in battle accomplishes nothing. The only things they are capable of doing are patrolling the halls and killing anybody they find, while occasionally having "fun" with them.
- Elite Mooks: Guards wielding ballistas can be found in the prison at level 3. They have a slightly higher attack stat and can even shoot you in the world map, making kiting more difficult. There's also the Elite Guards, which are guards that are equipped with armor and wield proper weapons in the form of a sword and a morning star, rather than the cleavers their standard counterparts wear.
- Full-Frontal Assault: An unusual variant in that they do wear a loincloth, but their penis is too large to be concealed by it.
- The Goomba: Downplayed. They are certainly the most weak and basic enemies found in the dungeon, but are no less dangerous to a Player Character in the beginning and can even kill an unprepared player with ease.
- Gonk: They are not pretty, to say the least.
- Monster Modesty: Subverted; they wear loincloths alright, but...
- Prison Rape: If their "stinger" defeats a player character, this will happen to them, leaving them unable to use their legs and with an "Anal bleeding" status effect.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Rarely, some guards can be found controlled by a Brain Flower.
- Was Once a Man: Implied to be the case with them.
Maneba
- Mix-and-Match Creatures: The Beta design of the Maneba had the head resemble a pressure-damaged Blobfish with jellyfish tentacles.
- Telepathy: If talked to, Maneba are capable of transmitting concepts into the player character's mind.
Dark Priests
- Dressing as the Enemy: If the player interacts with them while wearing their garbs, they won't fight you and will actually give you an item if you ask for help.
Yellow Mages
- Dance Battler: Whenever engaged in battle, they will perform their signature La Danse Macabre. You can even prevent them from casting the Hurting spell by disabling one of their legs.
- Friendly Enemy: They'll be quite happy to share their teachings with you if the right dialogue options are chosen, and will even give you a talisman required to recruit Nas'hrah to contact their "teacher" if inquired about it… while still laying a smackdown to you.
- It's All About Me: An explicit part of the Yellow Mages' doctrine is that each one is only in it for themselves. Master-apprentice relationships are all transactional, and Gro-Goroth's rituals are simply a means to power rather than a sign of devotion.
- No Body Left Behind: As with all Gro-Goroth followers, their body disappears on death, only leaving behind their robes and some loot.
Harvestmen
- Ass Shove: For lack of a better term, this is what they do to you in their unique death cutscene.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: They will attempt to kidnap The Girl at the first opportunity, and when one finds them in the middle of the streets of Ma'habre, they will be petting her, which they'll keep doing to your party when engaging in a fight while performing "innocent" whistling, until after a few turns of seemingly harmless, playful actions, they'll try to grapple and molest your character. All of this makes them into an eldritch counterpart to more "mundane" sexual predators.
- Lean and Mean: They're lanky, tall, and very creepy enemies who have no problem using their overwhelming height to grapple your character and molest them.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: They have an extra limb which can just as easily attempt to grab you as the rest of them.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Don't let their lanky arms fool you, they're strong enough to break your limbs.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: They'll occasionally whistle by themselves during their turns while they're being fought. As the rest of the tropes on his profile show, they're as far away from being innocent as possible.
- Pædo Hunt: They quickly take... interest in The Girl if she's present in your party, though luckily they never get as far as actually doing anything to her after having her kidnapped. Your other party members, on the other hand...
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Their death cutscene, see Ass Shove.
- Shout-Out: Their appearance is based off of the cover of Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.
Lizardmen
- Blood Knight: During a fight, they will show off their combat skills and respond to your threats with a wide grin.
- Flaying Alive: What happens to those unfortunate enough to lose to them.
- Odd Couple: Inside the Gauntlet, you will encounter the Yellow Lizardmage — the result of a marriage between a lizardman and a Yellow Mage.
Scarab
- Acid Attack: They can spray acid that can destroy your weapon.
- Befriending the Enemy: If the player has the 'Mastery over insects' skill, the Scarabs will recognize you as one of their own and agree to a truce.
- Informed Flaw: They're described as being a condensed form of human wickedness by the New Gods, but in contrast to this description, they're completely willing to call a truce if you have the Mastery over Insects skill and stop attacking.
- Nightmare Face: Their shells are decorated with a grotesque smiling face. It's not made clear whether or not it's a defence mechanism or if it's their actual faces.
Uterus
- Sexbot: With their frail bodies unfit for physical labor, Valteil instead uses them for his pastime pleasure. This also involves the embryos they hold inside.
Cavedwellers
- Berserk Button: If the player takes the Cube of the Depths without wearing the stone crown or interrupts their activities, they will all become hostile and attack the player on sight.
- Boulder Bludgeon: Their main method of punishing wrong-doers, being done to a member of their tribe for trying to befriend the player and D'arce after she tried to preach the glory of Alll-mer to them. Generic members of their tribe also use them to attack the player should they antagonize them.
- Hidden Elf Village: None of the cavedwellers, save for the merchant, wants to interact to you. Talking to outsiders seems to even be a severe crime in their culture, as the only one that does is beaten to death with a rock.
- Low-Tech Spears: The Cavedwellers are a race of monstrous tribesmen found in the Mines. While they were once human, a cave-in ultimately forced them to mutate themselves into a race not even capable of speaking human language. Within their settlement, there exist several members of their kind who act as Elite Mooks, each wielding spears capable of inflicting the Bleeding and Poison status effects in combat, compared to the small rocks used by everyone else.
- Timed Mission: If the player takes too long to get to their village, a Moonless Guard will butcher almost all of them.
Cave Gnomes
- Zerg Rush: They can summon more Gnomes to back them up.
Mumblers
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: The Greater Mumbler variant has a bell that drains your mind with its chimes.
- It Can Think: Unlike their inferior variants, Greater Mumblers retain some of their free will, making them more dangerous.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Some of the Brain Flowers in The Thicket will use them as hosts.
- Your Head Asplode: If they are killed with a headshot, it explodes into poison splashing onto the player.
Others
Nosramus, the Alchemist
A mysterious person of indeterminate gender that apparently lives in the mines, mostly minding their own business and unbothered by the horrors of the dungeon.
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: In some retelling of the Fellowship's journey, Nosramus tried to betray the group before the ascension, only to fail and fall into obscurity.
- Tranquil Fury: If the player opens the chest in his hideout, he will refuse to speak to them any further.
- Unperson: As he did not join the rest of The Fellowship in ascension, he would later be referred to as 'The Forgotten One' in the history books.
Cockroach King
A gigantic cockroach that is hidden in the dungeons. You can talk to him if you have the abilities needed for commumication.
- The Good King: He shows disdain for surface dwellers, but if you have mastery over insects and complete his tasks, he will reward you for your efforts with affinity with his god. His subjects speak of him with reverence and he in turn looks out for them by giving them new homes.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: His first task is to kill the butterfly, a grotesque but harmless creature that bears no ill will to the player. This is necessary to deepen your affinity with the God of The Depths.
Pocketcat
A strange but apparently friendly man with a cat mask that appears on the dungeon.
- Affably Evil: Despite being a creation of the Moon God Rher who kidnaps children, he talks in a very friendly tone and appreciates honesty.
- Corrupted Character Copy: Like Zacharie from OFF, Pocketcat is a strange yet affable merchant implicitly aware of being in a video game, and Zacharie even occasionally wears a cat mask that Pocketcat does 24/7. Unlike Zacharie however, Pocketcat's reputation is not that of a well-respected member of the community but rather a feared boogeyman, and while Zacharie's happy to trade with regular money, Pocketcat only accepts children, with the implication that he uses them as a food source.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Pocketcat will scratch its pocket when presented with a child and when meeting Wilhelm in its story book. It looks like anything but and more like he's fondling himself.
- Fluffy the Terrible: His known name as "Pocketcat" might bring to mind an anthropomorphic cat holding a pocket watch, which he technically is appearance-wise, but it leaves out the fact that he's also a child-kidnapping monster with no moral restraints too.
- I'm a Humanitarian: It is strongly implied through the thematic overlap of sexual predation and normal predation, as well as his dialogue when you initially refuse to give him The Girl the last time he appears, that he doesn't merely kidnap children, but eats them.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: Pocketcat is based around nursery rhyme legends of a child-stealing boogeyman, with one such story being present in the game.
Trortur
A war hero turned depraved sadist, working as the dungeon's official torturer.
- An Arm and a Leg: Is made completely harmless if his left arm is cut off. If he gets his hands on the player, a scene plays where he cuts off the player's limbs among other things.
- Bald of Evil: Not fully bald. Balding of evil.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: He was captured by an enemy army and tortured for five years. When he was found, he was never the same.
- Crippling Castration: In the torture scene with the player, he mutilates the player's "dirty sinful parts".
- Depraved Dwarf: Simple. He is short and evil. In the games files, his sprite sheets are titled: "dwarf", though whether or not he actually has dwarfism isn't really clear due to the fact he was tortured and has a hunchback.
- Didn't Need Those Anyway!: "Where you are going - you got no need for arms. Chop-chop".
- Karmic Injury: Can happen if the player chooses to cut off all of his limbs before going for his head or torso.
- Sadist: A sadist in every sense of the word.
- Significant Anagram: "Trortur" is just one letter away from forming "Torturer", his current profession.
- Torture Technician: Has a vast variety of tools used for torture.
- Would Hurt a Child: According the journal of Captain Rudimer, Trortur is not above torturing children.
Celeste
Cahara's lover back home, a prostitute.
- The Ghost: She's mentioned but doesn't physically appear in the game itself, even if you go through a flashback of her and Cahara. The only time you see her is in Cahara's S-Ending.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: She works as a prostitute to make ends meet, but shows concern about Cahara taking the job to rescue Le'garde from the dungeons and hopes he can come back safely.
- Satellite Love Interest: Not much is known about her save for her working as a prostitute and being Cahara's lover.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Her child becomes this if Cahara dies. And it looks like in Termina, this did indeed happen since Cahara is absent and implied to have given his life in helping The Girl's ascension.
Isayah
A thief wearing a mask that claims to be an experienced explorer of the dungeon. Depending on your actions, he might become an enemy.
- Cool Mask: He wears an iron mask that prevents being blinded in combat. The only way to get it is to loot it from his corpse.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The iron mask he wears prevents being blinded when you put it on, but Isayah can still be blinded when you fight him.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Find the first two treasures he directs you to and he attacks you to have them all for himself.
- Plaguemaster: Having been riddled with plague, he can attempt to infect the player character with it in combat.
Ludwig Buckman
The crown prince of Rondon, he came to the Dungeon of Fear and Hunger out of boredom to investigate the disappearance of one Captain Rudimer. To say he was unprepared for the horror of the dungeons is an understatement.
He came with a small party consisting of fellow knights Ser Seymor, Ser Seril, and Jeanne. They were separated shortly after entering and now they are all scattered throughout the Dungeon.
He came with a small party consisting of fellow knights Ser Seymor, Ser Seril, and Jeanne. They were separated shortly after entering and now they are all scattered throughout the Dungeon.
- The Load: While it's doubtful that anyone could ever be fully prepared for the Dungeon, Buckman is especially unprepared for it. He is in hysterics by the time you find him and has no apparent way to defend himself.
- Merging Mistake: He can attempt to form a Marriage with Ser Seymor, only for them to fuse into a bulky creature that can barely do anything aside from wheeze out words.
- Purple Is Powerful: Subverted. He's the crown prince of Rondon, as indicated by his purple shirt. He is also completely unprepared for the horrors of the dungeon and will die without the protagonist bailing him out.
Spoiler Characters
The Yellow King
Le'garde/The Yellow King
What was once Le'garde, the Captain, he is a prophesized New God that ascended for the purpose of uniting humanity and sending them towards a golden age.- Deity of Human Origin: Le'garde abandons his humanity to become a New God when he sat on the Throne of the True King.
- Flunky Boss: Along with a snake, he can summon Asterisks to aid him in battle. While they don't do much damage, their attacks ignore physical defence and can overwhelm your party in numbers if not dealt with.
- True Final Boss: Helping him ascend requires you to beat a rather strict time limit, and he outright offers you an opportunity to escape with your life without having to fight him. If you do so anyway, prepare for one of the toughest fights in the game.
The God of Fear and Hunger
The Girl/The God of Fear and Hunger
"A pure being, in which both strength of the new gods and a seed of the man from the prophecies come together. Never in the written history has there been a similar situation. It is truly exciting, isn't it? We can expect great things from her."
The True Final Boss of Fear & Hunger. Born from the union between Captain Le'garde and the New Goddess Nilvan, she actually resides dormant within the crying little girl your player character finds locked in a cage. But once your journey to the Altar of Darkness is completed, the little girl's metamorphosis finally begins…
- Apocalypse Maiden: An inverted example. Her mother is Nilvan, a New God who believes in mankind's endless potential and mated with Le'garde as part of a gambit to produce a powerful heir that can both rival the Old Gods and continue Humanity's reign over the world. Considering how the God of Fear and Hunger is still being worshiped during the events of Termina, it's safe to say that Nilvan canonically succeeds in her plan.
- Body Horror: Each of The Girl's transformations is rife with this, as her body becomes more malformed and monstrous.
- Her first form still resembles her original self, but she's crouched down, and an extra leg is growing from her back.
- Her second form, now the God of Fear and Hunger, resembles a naked statue with a cloth around her feet, cracked skin, spikes, no eyes with a bleeding socket, and missing arms.
- New "arms" have sprouted in her third form, but they're more or less handless stumps about to split apart; her pelvis is poking out of The Girl's skin, and a big hole has formed from where her vagina and stomach were.
- The fourth form of the god is a massive many-armed creature that towers over the heroes. The hole in her body threatens to split her apart while something is coming out of it. All the while, the look on the being's face looks almost happy.
- The God of Fear and Hunger's final form is as big as the last, and any trace of its original form as The Girl is completely gone. It stands proud over the heroes from the remnants of its previous body. It's basically what a scarecrow would look like if it was created from flesh and bone instead of straw. It's a sick bastardization of a divine being, and somehow it is one with a halo around its head.
- Deity of Human Origin: Though this depends on how human The Girl was to begin with, given the fact that Nilvan is her mother.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: She began life as a little girl who could barely attack even when given a dagger. She becomes a deity with power rivalling the Old Gods and who easily puts humanity through a trial by fire via the Cruel Age.
- Good Is Not Nice: The God of Fear and Hunger does have humanity's best interests at heart, but rather than lead them on to a golden age, she utilizes death, suffering, starvation, and the fear of it to incentivize people into improving themselves.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Losing to her gives you a Game Over. Winning against her results in Ending A, in which you still die after she acknowledges your suffering.
- "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: The player character can attempt this by talking to her, but it'll end in futility, as her responses are now rendered as unintelligible Black Speech. You do get up to two free turns per phase if you gave her gifts while she was still human, however.
- Mercy Kill: She views her killing of the Player Character's party as this, for not only have they proven that they've suffered greatly in their battle with her, but that there will be more suffering in store for them if they somehow do live on. Considering most endings where the characters escape the dungeon result in them succumbing to madness, and that she intends to bring about a Cruel Age to spur humanity's progress, she may have a point.
- Necessarily Evil: As the embodiment of human fear and suffering, her ascension galvanized mankind into unprecedented progress out of a need to overcome the Cruel Age it brought with it.
- Pet the Dog: She comforts the player in their final moments after "defeating" her, likely because they were the one source of kindness in her life.
- The Sacred Darkness: She is the embodiment of pain and terror. However, she doesn't utilize those to be cruel, but to strengthen humanity by giving it a grueling trial to endure and uplift itself from.
- Someone Has to Do It: Her apotheosis comes shortly after the death of the comatose God of the Depths, from whom magic associated with insects, rats, and other vermin were derived. Come Termina, the Hexen powers once associated with GotD affinity are now attained through affinity with her instead.
- Token Good Teammate: For a certain value of "good". The other New Gods are rampaging warlords and lunatics, driven mad by their ambitions in life. Even Le'garde, who is a Well-Intentioned Extremist, eventually turns into a warlord himself if he gets his way. The Girl, meanwhile, lived such an awful and terrible life that she has no ambitions whatsoever, and when she transforms into the God of Fear and Hunger, she ends up teaching humanity how to perservere through suffering and strife. Though this does cause the Cruel Age, by the sequel, she's become a beloved figure that has lifted humanity into significantly better circumstances. This is probably due to her being an Ascended God like All-mer.
- Villainous BSoD: If her knife and the peculiar doll are present during the fight, she will forgo her chance to attack the player to seemingly reminisce on her life as the girl.
- Was Once a Man: If you want to get technical, The Girl's half-human as Le'garde and Nilvan sired her to usher in a new age for humanity. Still, it's hard to think that the small, unassuming girl many players have grown attached to becomes this monstrous yet divine being.
- Worthy Opponent: Implied with Ending A, where she finally acknowledges you for the vital part you played in her ascension as the God of Fear and Hunger.
